SEASON 15 RACE 9 -SPA-RACE REPORT

[Valerio Vinassa]

Good last season race at all

 

[David Cook]

Very frustrating day. Bad quali. The session ended when I was on a hotlap. I was four tenths up after the first sector but then the session ended when I was in sector 2. I don't know why we stop the session like that. If we get across the line before the flag then we should be able to finish our laps I think. So that was fourth on the grid.

It looked like everyone in front had good pace and quite low downforce so I thought I would try something different. I lowered my downforce even more and adjusted my gears accordingly to allow overtaking. It made me a bit slower in the first stint but the lower downforce helped me to keep @Artyom Aslamazyan behind on the Kemmel straight. And I was able to overtake @Sean Greenlaw a few laps later. Nice racing with them.

Unfortunately on lap 13 I was running in third a little behind the leading two and I got caught up behind @Stenne and spun. Sten, if you don't have your overhead mirrors turned on then I suggest you do. From the replay I can see you also held up David Turnbull while he was leading. You also need to be more careful when you're rejoining the track. First make sure it's safe to rejoin, and then after rejoining you need to make sure you get up to full speed quickly.

After that I made some errors of my own. On lap 16 I spun in sector 2 and then when I entered the pitlane the back of my car slightly tagged the pit entry barrier and gave me suspension damage. That gave me a 20 second long pit stop to fix the damage. Race effectively over for me at that point. In the second stint I had good pace but I was 32 seconds behind Sean in third place. Managed to set the fastest lap but no points for that. Frustrating day.

Well done @Dino Paolini for the win and the championship.

 

[David Turnbull]

Qualifying - 3rd

Happy with that, was really good having so many that couldve taken pole, I was happy to settle into that bunch.

Race - DNF

Started well, up into 2nd place by the end of the Kemmel straight, tried to gain on Sean but we were roughly the same pace so it was all about waiting for a mistake which came after a few laps and I was into the lead with Dino always close, I stupidly made the call to go 1 lap longer than I shouldve and fluffed it into the wall after Lex Combes, took my wing off and damaged my suspension, I let a number of cars through and decided that with pit time and repairs it just wasnt worth it from where I was on track.

Grats podium, Big grats Dino for the championship, hope to see you back next season to defend again, hopefully you'll receive a bigger challenge

see you all a the fun races that will be organised for after new year and before season 16, hope everyone has a very merry christmas and a great new year

 

[Valerio Vinassa]

The race was started with nice battles Phil Mark Nicolas this until lap 8 after my tyres seemed wear out in lap 12 tyres are nice so I drove until lap 19 did the pit and front me April at about 8sec back me Peter but 18sec about and in lap 21 I met Tim just out of pit a nice battle for the position with the misadventure of lap22 (read incident-report) and then until Tim I saw him in mirrors spin out of Eau Rouge,now Peter is at 10sec my tyres cry a bit some lap only 6sec from me and Peter and think 3mins to go Im out of Rivage push a bit more on throttle spin and Peter is here him pass two laps race finished.Summa of my race: a bit of little mistake no good ,finished race in full laps no lapping this time this is good

Congratulaions two time at "Dino the Champ" one time Sean and Artyom for race and all us for the pleasure and fun for racing together. Triple Hurray for PrestoGP


PS Marry Christmas and Happy New Year at all and family
cu u on fun server just for a breack between a dinner and lunch

 

[Stenne]

This wasn't such a good race for me. Got stressed at lap 12-13 and did'nt keep concentration up, which caused some incidents (see incident report).

Otherwise. For me, I really learn a lot at each of these long races. But I also realise what a long way I have to go to get even the slightest competitive. Sometimes it brings me down (like today) and sometimes I get motivated (like last weeks race).

I used to practise Aikido (which also takes years to master) and the teacher then told us not to compare how we did today with how we did a couple of weeks a go. But look back a year and see how you improved since then. So I will take on simracing according to the same philosophy if you can stand to have me as a backmarker next year as well.

PS
I saw on the race report from rF2 Log Analyzer that you all had an aid called "Blip". I guess that's throttle blips on downshift. How do I set that?
DS

 

[Stenne]

Sten, if you don't have your overhead mirrors turned on then I suggest you do. From the replay I can see you also held up David Turnbull while he was leading. You also need to be more careful when you're rejoining the track. First make sure it's safe to rejoin, and then after rejoining you need to make sure you get up to full speed quickly.

Thanks for feedback.

I'll take it with me and learn

 

[Steeve Fournier]

Q: 6th

R: 1st... DNF of the field

Got a good start gaing 1 position on Artyom. After a slight mistake from me on lap 2 or 3, he gain back his spot. Then had some good racing with Peter for about 15 minutes. He caught me, overtook me, i caught him back and overtook him also, Then lost the rear at the 1st corner of S3, and the wall decided to keep my right rear wheel as a souvenir, leaving me with no option but to retire from my 1st prestogp race in ASR mod.

Was fun to be back with you all on track. I miss that.

Gratz Dino for the championship and the win.

Hope to race sometimes with PrestoGP again soon.

Merry X-mas to all

Steeve

 

[David Cook]

I've just noticed something funny in the replay. Check out the first lap. On the Kemmel straight I bump into the back of @David Turnbull a little bit and it slows me down but it gives him a speed boost of about 8kph or so, which allowed him to overtake @Dino Paolini. And we're both in the Williams car. Shake and bake!

 

[Dino Paolini]

Q: Good q again, but very short time for such a long track. Considering that, it went fine, p2 on the grid.

R: Start was ok, but timing on turn1 wasn't great and therefore the exit of that was not so good, this lead to beeing passed on the straight after eau-rouge. Still managing to go through eau-rouge and the next turn without accidents was good stuff there with David T.

It didn't look like the overrun was ever going to be enough to have a chance at passing first with David then with Sean, so the best thing to do was trying to stay somewhat close and timing the pitstop right.
I don't think I did really good job with both things, but both had an off moment in the race which led me through anyway.

My second stint was a bit difficult with some run-offs beeing used and stuff like that, but it was somehow still enough to stay in front.
Not a glorious drive at all but who cares


Thanks all for a rewarding season. Middle of a season was not the greatest with the small grid, but start and finish were quite nice again.

I'm most likely taking a break from S16 and maybe beeing back for S17 again, so have a good time and see ya all again soon

 

[Sean Greenlaw]

Q:1st , was on better lap but ran of time and with a look at times and a phew lol

R: 2nd

Getting a good start was able to keep position and just set about being consistent in to t8 in stint tho I made a couple mistakes the 2nd with me going off and losing places.
Decided to pit early around 37/8 mins left and worked out a little was able to get close to Dino when he exited a little later.
This is when I realised Davids must have dropped back as they would have been around same track position. Looking like me chasing Dino in turn chasing Artyom who hadn't stopped. Which made the race quite exciting towards the end.

Big grats Dino again ! and Artyom for hard no stop race well done to all finishers

Cyas on servers and around here for build up for next season, Enjoy your time off Dino hope to see you back soon

 

[Peter Decker]

It felt very nice to be back after 3 missed races. This became a fun season finale, especially the first half where I found myself near @Steeve Fournier! I felt I had the pace at first and managed to overtake at lap 5 (with a little too wiggly and tight margin perhaps after au rouge ) but I think I over pushed after that and car felt more and more like a boat. Steeve on the other hand seemed to thrive! Not much I could do in my ferry when he blasted past in his formula-boat. I managed to hang on somewhat and dreamt of old times with Steeve like Malaysia's swapping of positions

There are 2 corners I really have not got a good feeling for - the downhill left before Pouhon and Stavelot, the first of the two righthanders before the back straight. There is such a weird grip in Stavelot, off-camber?, not many clear brake marks, not like Peter's preferred kind of clear feedback like Singapore's walls and bright colours. Every lap, there is a slight worry growing when it's time to survive through that doomed place of uncertainty! So the power-slide happened. Wing lost, front wheels turned towards eachother, a long spinful straight and 30+s pit repairs and I was going again! Woho... Managed to recommit and hunt Vale who was far ahead. Vale did a mistake at the last minute, otherwise I think we'd have rolled hand-in-hand over the finish line

Grats to Dino! Grats to all participants! Very nice to see so many show up at such a day!

Looking forward to next season!